New Treatments

“AIDS Drug ‘Failures’ May Be Successes” (March 6) was helpful to all of us who suffer from conditions defined as incurable.

In 1994, I underwent a liver biopsy to confirm the extent of metastatic breast cancer that was first detected in 1991. Statistics available in the clinical literature suggested that I had a 90% chance of dying within nine months. I am still alive, however, and doing rather well with chemotherapy offered at City of Hope. I am sometimes able to think of my condition as “chronic but treatable,” rather than “terminal.” This allows me to hope that I might live long enough for yet another form of treatment--something which is not now available--that will extend my life.

One of the damaging messages of our “cancer culture” is that anything less than “absolute cure” is not worth pursuing. Patients frequently give up when told their condition is incurable. While all of us who suffer from cancer carry intense wishes to be free of this internal monster forever, it is possible to live in a state of truce with this disease, to have a relatively high quality of life and to wait for something better to come along.

JILL ANNE KOWALIK

La Habra Heights